Fortes Fortuna Juvat
by alh1971
Summary: A different spin on Eric's vampire origins. One shot. AU, M for mature content.


_AN: Here is a weird little one-shot I wrote a while back._

_Disclaimer: SVM and True Blood characters are not mine, unfortunately. If they were, the book and TV series would be boring because I probably would have ended them rather quickly, with Eric and Sookie living happily undead ever after...__  
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_…_

The sun was beginning to set. The fiery beams of night's harbinger highlighted the smoke that wafted lazily into the trees.

The ravens were thick upon the dead. As Erik painfully raised his eyes he saw several more perched on trees that surrounded the battle site, cawing loudly to their comrades.

One particularly large and bold bird ambled up to him, where he had lain in a congealing pool of his own blood and waste since he fell last night. The bird cocked its head and jabbed an exploratory peck at Erik's outstretched hand, which was contorted at an odd angle.

Erik's fingers flinched instinctively and he made a half-hearted shooing gesture at the bird, which deftly hopped out of reach.

He whispered to the bird through cracked lips. "Huginn…or are you Muninn? Odin has sent you, but I am not yet ready to join him in Valhalla. You will have to be patient but a little while longer. I have not much time left in this world, and then you may have your way with this body as you and your kind have had with my men…" His hoarse voice ended in a cough that wracked his body. He grimaced in agony, as the violent motions had reopened a deep chest wound.

After his cough calmed, he continued watching the birds eat the dead until one plucked out the eye of his good friend Brynjar. It dropped it under it's talons, where it tore the orb into shreds before greedily swallowing the viscera.

He closed his eyes to shield himself from the horrors before him and fell into a febrile, pained sleep.

When he woke, night had descended on the wood. He could smell the stench from the corpses comingled with smoke and wondered how he had continued to cheat death.

His breath caught as he saw the image of a pale woman, glowing in the moonlight.

She was standing several feet away, watching him with an impassive expression on her face. She wore a tunic that was cinched with a primitive looking leather belt, from which a large knife was unceremoniously tucked. Her long blonde hair was braided on the sides and swept up on top of her head, though the rest hung loose to her waist and was tangled with leaves and twigs. With vague interest, he noted that although the woman's beauty was undeniable, she was filthy and streaked with blood.

In a movement faster than his eyes could track, the woman flashed in a streak close to him. She tilted her head inquisitively and crouched down on her haunches. She inhaled deeply and grinned at him, revealing long gleaming fangs.

She spoke to him in an unfamiliar tongue. He continued staring at her as he labored for breath. She tried again in a different language, this one more guttural and harsh-sounding. He blinked and gave a near imperceptible shake of his head.

"You are no valkyrie," he rasped.

She retracted her fangs and spoke to him again. "Ah, yes, forgive me. I forget myself but now we can understand each other. That is good. I am glad to find you alive as I feared I would arrive too late."

He stared at her in awe. "I am dreaming."

She laughed softly. "No…I assure you I am real." She reached out and caressed the hair back from his face. "There. You feel my touch? Now you see I am no figment of your imagination."

Erik marveled at her cold skin. "You…are you Death?"

She chuckled and nodded. "Yes, indeed I am."

"But you are just a girl…no older than 18 years I reckon," he whispered.

She smiled gleefully, as if hiding a mirthful secret but slowly shook her head.

"No, I am no girl."

Erik winced in pain but continued, "I must know before I die…What are you, truthfully?"

She did not respond to his question but sidled closer to him, heedless of the bloody mud that soaked the ground around him.

"I watched you, did you know? Up in the tree, unobserved, I watched. I have never seen anyone fight you as you do. You are a fearsome warrior. You felled as many men as three of your comrades did together." She looked around and laughed. "But fall they did as well, as did all your enemies."

She continued stroking his hair, pulling at the matted blood. She picked out a large clot from a wound at his hairline and popped it in her mouth.

Erik stared at her, fascinated by her bizarre and grotesque behavior. She moaned appreciatively as her eyes rolled back in her head.

"Mmm, delicious as well as courageous, cunning, and handsome." Her eyes glowed as her fangs once again descended.

"What would you say if I told you that you could be healed, never again to be subjected to the ills and frailty of this mortal body?"

"What else is in it for me?" Even as he lay dying, Erik's audacity could not be tempered.

The woman chuckled and peered intently at him. "What would you say, warrior, if I asked you to be the companion of Death? I would be your mother, sister, lover…anything and everything you would need. I would teach you all that I know and you would walk the long endless nights by my side."

Erik was silent, considering this otherworldly being's strange words.

"My name is Suicca matir Adeles. Your name is Erik. I heard your men calling to you to save them as they fell. I like that name, very much. It suits you, I think."

He laughed weakly, which triggered another painful coughing spell that reopened his chest wound. Afterwards, he panted with his eyes closed.

Suicca shook her head. "Forgive me…it has been so long for me…I tend to forget what human suffering is like." She bent down and licked the blood that trickled from his chest wound. "You have not much life blood left, warrior. Even now as we speak, you weaken. You are but minutes away from your final death."

Erik opened his eyes and spoke to her in a weak voice. "At first I believed you to be valkyrie, sent by Odin to bring me to my forefathers table in Valhalla. And then I thought you to be Freyja…But you are not…are you draugr?"

She shook her head. "I am a woman. An immortal woman. And I am here to offer you one last chance at what you most lust for…Life."

"Life…" Erik whispered.

She nodded and leaned down, placing her lips, which reeked of blood, down by his ear. "Do you wish for my dark gift, warrior? Do you want to live forever?"

Erik breathed out, "Yesss…."

She hesitated for just a moment before whispering the unfamiliar words, "Fortes fortuna juvat." She struck faster than a snake, sinking her long fangs into his neck.

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_AN: Reviews are appreciated. What do you think?_


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